JUST THE NEWS WE WANTED.

Those of you that follow my blog will have seen that we back in March had our Barn Owls disappear after some confrontations with a pair of Kestrel. 

This also happened two years ago but on that occasion the Male Barn Owl killed the Male Kestrel.

This year we had all the problems with the Kestrel landing on the box and eventually entering the box, obviously the Barn Owls had enough and I took it they had fought and then after this we saw nothing of either the Barnies or the Kestrel, I had the opinion that both Males had killed each other but then last Friday the 21st of June, I was out late in the garden and suddenly a Barn Owl appeared in the doorway of the smaller box, I managed a quick image and I was then checking the image to see the quality when a second bird appeared and flew. So it appears we have got the pair back.

I have been out every evening since then and seen the birds every evening even though the weather has been abysmal with a mixture of rain and wind, I'm just hoping for a good evening when I can get out in the hide and get some decent images to see if they are the same birds we had previously, which will be if the male has been ringed.  

For these images I was sat in the car about 80 metres away and shooting at ISO 22800 and hand holding the camera, hence the poor quality.


Shorter post than normal due to the Barn Owls appearing, sorry.

First sighting, Female Barn Owl.

This was on the Friday evening, after this the male came out and flew immediately away from the box, I was checking the quality of the images taken.

Female again, another evening. 

Again the female, yet another evening, the sky was full of cloud, looked as if it was going to rain very heavily and almost dark. What have I got to do to get an image of the male.
  

A QUICK VISIT TO EYEBROOK.

I decided to have a quick visit to Eyebrook Reservoir to hopefully see the Male Osprey 03/09, I actually saw three Osprey all on the far side of the reservoir, much too far to get a decent image, but I have included one of 03 anyway.

Red Kite, Opposite Stoke Dry.

This was one of four birds that all arrived together, the other three were considerably higher and I just concentrated on this bird. 

Hobby, Opposite Stoke Dry.

This bird flew into the area above the Tern rafts and was immediately attacked by the Terns, the bird then foolishly came back for a second visit. 

Mute Swan with Cygnet.

This is the same bird I had shown previously on the nest with the cygnet, it appears she has only raised the single young but good to see them both out on the water. 

Male Osprey 03/09.

This bird was flying back to the nest site with a fish for his young. He unfortunately was flying on the far side of the reservoir some 350 metres away, after this he turned to head for the nest but he came no closer.

Site 'O' Osprey Nest.

This image is taken from the nearest field entrance I can  get to the nest but you can just make out the female sat on the 'T' post to the left of the nest. The nest is 1200 metres away from the gateway.

Thank you for your visit, I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did in the getting of the images.